Canceled flight to Seattle costs Alaska man chance for heart transplant
Dec 29, 2022, 5:45 AM
Photo from KIRO 7
Thousands of people across the country had their holidays disrupted because of airline cancellations. But for one man, his canceled flight to Seattle meant putting a life-saving surgery on hold indefinitely.
Patrick Holland was hoping to spend his Christmas at Harborview Medical Center. After waiting on a transplant list, the Alaska native got the call last Thursday that a new heart was finally available through UW Medicine.
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Once that happened, he was on a time crunch to get from Fairbanks to Seattle. But once he was on the flight, his plane was turned around as flights at Sea-Tac Airport continued to be canceled due to weather.
Holland then couldn’t make it to Seattle in time, and another person on the transplant list received the heart.
